The Gray Order
by Sindaore
Summary: 2,000 years have passed since the Galactic Empire. The Gray Order rejects the beliefs of the Sith and Jedi, saying that emotions are good, and using them in the right place and right time is the way to living a balanced life...
1. Introduction

Introduction

_Roughly 1,000 years ago, the Dark Jedi were finally and completely repulsed. All members were killed in action, captured, or fled beyond the edges of the Republic. But all is not well. They fled to...the Sith Empire. _

There, they took refuge. The Dark Lord of the Sith realized how much of an advantage having an actual army of dark-force-wielding Jedi would be, especially since he wished to reestablish the dominance of the Sith Empire. Thus, the Dark Lord made a deal with the Dark Jedi Council: if they gave him control, and he would give them an equal share in revenge on the Jedi.

Thus began the recruitment of the newly merged Dark Jedi/Sith. Slowly, ever so slowly, the numbers of the Dark Jedi increased. Korriban became a sort of...transfer point. Dark force users were drawn there, then tested and (if found worthy) taken to a world in the Empire's territory for training. The numbers of the Dark Jedi swelled over the course of several centuries, and the Dark Lords throughout those times took the cream of the crop to be their apprentices. This bolstered the Sith numbers, leading to multiple Lords—but still, only one high, powerful, Dark Lord of the Sith.This Sith is known as Lord Firiath.

The Jedi sensed the Dark Force presence on Korriban, but every mission to the planet has failed. Whisperings of no Jedi ever returning from the planet alive pop up now and again, but nobody in the higher levels is talking. The Jedi Council didn't know what to do; the tombs of the Sith Lords already darken the planet. Along with the purposefully small numbers kept on Korriban at any one time, it became the perfect hiding place for Sith and Dark Jedi.

Now, the Dark Jedi/Sith are in the final stages of their attack preparations. They've set up a first base of operations on Korriban. Because of advances in technology on both sides in the more than two millennia since their last engagement, both the Empire and the Republic are moving slowly, scoping out the enemy and waiting.

_But not all is war. A new Order has been established, a secret Order. This Order of outcast Jedi and outcast padawans was formed by those who saw truly into the Force, or so their teachings say. While the Sith and Jedi quarrel this Order, The Gray Order, has been gaining strength in total secret. For they can only exist if none know their presence; if found they would be targeted by the Jedi and Sith. But their goal is to keep the Jedi and Dark Jedi in complete balance. If one side is dominant they must be stopped. No matter the cost. No matter the target. If the scale is tipped too far on one side, it could tip and plunge the universe into complete and utter chaos._


	2. Revelations

Revelations

Sindaore looked out on the horizon; he was wearing serene gray and white robes. A fine example of a Gray Knight, Sindaore got out his binoculars. He saw a couple figures out past the rocks in a barren desert. They looked like the men from the bios on his data pad. They were all gathered around a speeder, and they appeared to be grabbing at something in an open container that Sindaore couldn't make out its label. Sindaore needed just a little more patience. He focused his mind on the task at hand. He couldn't screw this mission up. This was just as important as all of the others he had been on. What was he thinking! Of course this wasn't as important! This was child's play compared to some of his previous missions.

He remembered receiving this mission from Master Hasan. He had argues with him a little bit, telling Hasan that this mission was just a waste of time for him. He had told Hasan that he wanted action. He wanted adventure, and Hasan had turned him down telling him that if he were to pull this mission off he would get a great assignment, one that would be of the long term sort. Sindaore had pondered about this a lot while he had headed towards this location. But before he left, Hasan had told Sindaore to be cautious and to remember patience. Sindaore knew his weaknesses as well as everyone else did. But _Master Hasan_ telling him this had made him more attentive of his flaws. Sindaore wanted to be a great Gray Jedi Master one day, and if he concentrated on fixing his flaws he could achieve this goal.

Sindaore's attention was quickly drawn to a speeder moving in on the group of men. The speeder that was heading towards these men stopped about 10 meters from the group. Blaster fire erupted, and the men scrambled behind their speeder. Sindaore was on his feet, his lightsaber drawn. He was only 50 meters from this fight. He drew upon the Force and jumped out from the rock he was hiding behind and landed nearby the men being fired at. He needed this container, if it was damaged in any way, his mission would be marked as a failure, and he couldn't have that!

The other men inside the speeder quickly began to fire on Sindaore. He easily deflected the shots back at them. But the ones who were hiding from the men in the speeder quickly drew out their guns and decided to fire at Sindaore as well. Sindaore drew on the Force once more and did some acrobatics. He dispatched one, two, three, four men as they tried to corner him against the rocks. The other men in the speeder decided it was best not to mess with a Jedi, or at least they thought he was one. The speeder made a quick maneuver and was off in the opposite direction.

Sindaore felt through the Force and felt that there was still one hiding. This was good. He moved towards the crate, which fell of the speeder it was on. A boy about the age of 13 fell out of it. He was a humanoid, he had brown hair, tanned skin and green eyes and he appeared unharmed.

"What do you want?" the boy yelled, clearly scared.

"I am here to save you." Replied Sindaore calmly.

"Yeah right, why would you want to save me," the boy glanced down and noticed Sindaore's lightsaber, "you Jedi scum!"

"I am no Jedi. And I have come here to offer you what the Jedi would not."

"What do you mean? You have a lightsaber. I felt you using the Force to _rescue_ me. I am _not_ dumb!"

"Here let me show you." Sindaore pulled out his lightsaber from his inside coat. He turned it on, it was gray. Sindaore then took the one attached to his belt. He turned it on, and it glowed gray as well.

"There's no way. You wield two lightsabers?" said the boy.

"Yes, I do. And you also note the color of both of them?" Sindaore said as he turned them off and put them away, "I am a member of an Order which accepts those who aren't _grand enough_ to make it into the Jedi Order. I am a Gray Knight, of The Gray Order, and I invite you to accompany me back to it. You have been chosen to help keep the balance in the Force, but it is your decision on whether or not to do this. It is a harder life than a Jedi's. You must live in total secret among other Gray Jedi and keep the balance in the Force."

"What is your name?" asked the boy.

"I am Sindaore."

"I am Jey. And I choose the come with you."

"Follow me, then." said Sindaore as he hopped into the speeder. He glanced at the controls to make sure it was still operational and so that he could make sure he was able to pilot it. As soon as Jey climbed in, Sindaore put his hand to the throttle and blasted away into the desert. Normally a human couldn't pilot this fast, but with some basic speeder training and the Force you could pilot almost anything at any speed.

The sun was going down, and as time passed it went almost completely dark. Sindaore could make out in the darkness that their environment had changed. This was a good sign. They were on time and the right path. There was some sort of dark thing up ahead that Jey could barely make out to be trees. Sindaore stopped the speeder. Jey's ears were ringing from the noise of the speeder and he saw Sindaore mutter something, but couldn't hear him.

"WHAT!" he yelled.

"I said to be quite." Sindaore gestured this message as well to Jey and he caught on. They entered the woods. Jey was almost sure that Sindaore was just blazing his own trail. Sindaore was going in the direction of the location of the Order and as they walked on you could hear various animal calls and a constant chirping of some nocturnal birds. They hiked on through the dark forest. The branches were getting annoying to Jey. They kept poking into him and giving him minor cuts and scraps. Sindaore appeared to be enjoying this little "hike". And after what seemed like hours, Sindaore abruptly stopped.

"Now, you must follow my instructions completely. Once we get to the location, we won't be able to speak…"

"Why!" Jey interrupted.

"Please, do not interrupt me. You will see why we can not speak. I don't want to ruin the surprise. Now, take this and put it into your mouth when the time comes. What I am giving you is called _gills_. It lets you breath underwater." Sindaore handed Jey the gills. It fit into Jey's hand and he closed his fingers around it to make sure he wouldn't drop it and lose it to the darkness of the forest.

"Now, let's move on" said Sindaore. As they continued on, Jey heard a mighty roar in the distance. It was constant, and it got louder and louder as they continued on this blazed path. Sindaore saw the break in the trees. He pushed on. Only a little further to go and they would be in the safety of The Gray Order.

As they passed the last of the trees, the sound magnified so that Jey could hardly hear himself think. At that point he finally realized he was hungry. His stomach's growl was lost in the noise of a gigantic waterfall. It was magnificent, and he could also see the sky starting to lighten. He didn't realize they had been hiking for this long. He could see the sunrise right above the waterfall, and it looked gorgeous.

Sindaore was trying to catch his attention. He finally had to tap Jey on the shoulders to get him back to reality. Jey finally came back to reality and watched as Sindaore motioned for him to follow him. Sindaore climbed onto a large rock in the lake of the waterfall. He jumped and dove head first into the water. Jey scrambled to catch up to Sindaore. As he dove into the water, he could make out Sindaore a couple meters in front of him. Jey realized that he couldn't breath, he remembered the gills were in his pocket and got it out and out it into his mouth. But Sindaore was already swimming towards the great rush of water in the waterfall, and Jey followed. It was odd; he noticed that the waves weren't pushing him down like they should be as they swam directly under the waterfall. But he didn't have time to fathom this as Sindaore wasn't slowing down. Then Sindaore disappeared altogether. Jey continued in the direction that Sindaore was going in and was being sucked in. He tried to fight it, but it didn't give. Jey started to panic. He lost his gills in the panic. But then he felt a hand grab him and pull him in towards the suction.

"That was close," said Sindaore, "Next time, try not to panic, or at least try not to panic _that_ much."

"Well! I see you disappear! And then… Wait, where are we?" asked Jey.

"We are in a tunnel leading to The Gray Order's hideout. Follow me and please keep up." Sindaore then turned around and started to walk through the cave tunnel. There was an eerie silence that the cave seemed to have, and to top the eerie silence off, there's was an odd dripping sound that seemed to come from behind of them.

"How is it that the cave isn't flooded with water?" asked Jey.

"When this place was constructed nearly 400 years ago, The Great 3 were faced with that same problem. One of them had visited the planet Naboo and had been in the company of peoples called the Gungans. They possessed energy shields capable of keeping out water and energy based shots. So they traded for a generator and designed one to fit our specifications."

"That's really awesome!" said Jey.

"Yes, now when we get into the Great Hall, we must keep our voices at a whisper for reverence of The Great 3; for they were our founders and mentors, and they established our view of the Force." Sindaore stopped, turned around and said:

"Where there is only logic, there is tyranny.

To deny your emotions is to deny yourself.

Where there is only emotion, there is chaos.

To act without thinking is to invite disaster.

The path is the line between dark and light.

With heart and mind in balance, there is truth."

After Sindaore said this he turned around and started to walked again, leaving Jey to ponder what the Gray Code meant.

They had only been walking for a couple minutes when Jey could see a brighter opening in the tunnel. As he got closer he could see inside a little better, but because Sindaore was in front, his view was obstructed. As soon as he entered the Great Hall, his breath was taken away by the size of the place. It was a giant dome, with a walkway going all the way around the side of it. And what appeared to be steps leading up to a statue of what appeared to be 3 Jedi. The walls were covered with lush green ivy. There were ornate carvings drawn on the walls and ceiling of Gray Jedi and their adventures. There was even a picture of what appeared to be a Gray Knight thrusting their lightsaber into a Sith Lord.

Sindaore went around the chamber, which easily took five minutes, and as soon as they got to the other side they entered the door. As they walked in Jey quickly realized it was an elevator. Sindaore pressed a button with some funny symbols on it.

"How do you know where we're going?" asked Jey.

"I know because I have been in this temple for ten years. Also, we are given a secret alphabet to learn. Therefore if our enemy gets into this elevator they have no clue where to go, plus if they do crack the code the buttons analyze our fingerprints and match them up with our database."

"That seems like overkill."

"Well, if there was an incursion in our temple then at least we are prepared, right?"

"I guess..." said Jey, apparently not convinced.

The elevator came to a halt and as the doors slid open Sindaore walked out, with Jey following him. Sindaore noticed Jey taking in everything about this place, and he smiled. Compared to the life of a Jedi, this was luxurious. The halls had a carpet of maroon, with sleek gray metal walls. As they neared the end of the corridor, Sindaore turned around again and confided with Jey.

"Before you can become a Gray Knight, you must pass an interview and the Force sensitivity test. These tests will determine if you truly are meant to follow this path. If you are not, then you may live here and have a good life. But since you know sensitive information already, there is no turning back."

"I understand" said Jey. And with that, Sindaore turned back around and lead Jey into a fairly large size room. This room had three chairs in it, and only one person in the room. The man looked to be in his 50s. He had gray hair, and his complexion looked like that of an eagle and he had piercing gray eyes.

"Master Hasan, I present you Jey." And Sindaore bowed.

"Thank you, Sindaore. You are free to go. Now Jey I am Master Hasan and I am pleased to meet you Jey." said Hasan.

Sindaore left, leaving Jey behind as the doors closed. This was his interview, and Sindaore was pretty confident that Jey would pass. But for now Sindaore needed to report back in with the Security Officer.

Sindaore went down to the Security desk to find that he wasn't there. He needed to check in, so he decided to just stay and wait for the officer. Sindaore saw the security officer coming down the corridor after a couple minutes of waiting. The officer went behind his desk and Sindaore went through check in procedures. There was a series of questions that the officer went through in order to make sure that he hadn't been followed or tricked into showing their location. As soon as he was finished, Sindaore decided to go to his quarters to link his data pad into the main system to get the latest mission reports. He enjoyed reading the reports, and it was a great way to pass his time.

After he got to his room, which had a bed, a bathroom, and a small, all purpose room, he went directly to the port to put his data pad in. He took it out of his robes and linked it up. He then scrolled through the mission reports which had many reports on various missions. He was looking for something to catch his eye. Most of the missions had boring titles such as: _Observations of Republic Mining Facilities_, _Purchase of minor repair supplies_. Sindaore wanted something that had action in it, and something finally caught his eye.

Attack on Rendezvous With Jedi Correspondent

_While I was transferring information from his data pad to mine, we were suddenly attacked by what appears now to be a Dark Jedi. We were entangled in a fight and I was forced to retreat. The Jedi who was with me scrambled to get out of the location but in his hurry to leave was killed by the Dark Jedi. The last that I saw of the Dark Jedi was him killing the Jedi. I fear that this attacker knew of our meeting beforehand, which would indicate a leak in either our Order or the Jedi Order. This news is startling because the fact of the matter is: whether we have a leak or not our Order's existence might become public. While the location is still a complete secret, I have confidence that the Dark Jedi did not follow me; our Order might finally be on the verge of being revealed and I don't think the galaxy is ready for this kind of news._

Sindaore stared at this news. This was a complete shock to him, the order might be revealed? What could this mean for all of them? Whatever the outcome, Sindaore knew that it would take some careful, planned moves done by the Gray Jedi in order to survive in this galaxy.

Sindaore decided to scroll through the listings once again, to see if anything new had popped up. But nothing new had appeared in the last five minutes, so he decided to take a shower and go to the training chamber. After he was through bathing, he was just walking out the door when he heard his Com Consul ringing. He turned around and touched the accept button. An image appeared in mid air, it was Master Hasan.

"Greetings, Sindaore. I see you have freshened up. You are required to visit the Padawan Training Room as soon as possible," directed Hasan.

"Yes, Master. May I inquire what this is about?" asked Sindaore smoothly.

"This is about Jey, he passed his Force sensitivity test with flying colors, although his interview did not go to well. He has great fortitude and a strong will, and I am sure with the right Jedi he can become an excellent member of The Gray Order. Now, I know you have said no in the past, but I would really like you to train a Padawan, and teach him the ways of the Force. You don't _have_ to accept this one, but I have a task for you if you wish not to train Jey. The task entails updating the entire database in the main computer and deleting all unnecessary files, which can not be deleted until you have read through each file," said Hasan with a sly smile.

"I will consider your task when I make my decision, but you know that with the wrong Jedi training him, this could be a disaster."

"Yes, I realize that. Now, I have other matters. May the Force be with you."

"And with you, Master," and with that Hasan disappeared, leaving Sindaore behind, who had the security breach driven straight out of his mind by the decision of choosing a Padawan.


End file.
